[brightlancer]

That was not my experience, nor anything I've ever heard.

As a broad and imprecise statement, American cars in the 80s rarely ran past 100k, while Japanese cars commonly did. I read a few stories of American cars reaching 200k, but I saw a lot of Toyotas sailing past 200k.

And considering how awfully I saw those Toyotas treated, I don't think it had anything to do with maintenance.